Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls, Madison WMA, near Forum, Arkansas

2/12/2019 Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Turn off Hwy 23 to Tea Kettle:  36.258961,-93.745652
  Parking Location #1: 36.270317, -93.730672,  1250 ft.
  Parking Location #2:  36.284784, -93.720331, 1640 ft.
  Parking Location #3:  36.266577, -93.714468, 1275 ft.
  Tea Kettle Falls:  36.266300, -93.714900, 1236 ft
  Reynolds Hollow Falls:  36.267500, -93.721700,  1225 ft.
  Warm Springs Falls #1:  36.265352, -93.721253
  Warm Springs Falls #2:  36.265138, -93.719493
  Warm Springs Falls #3:  36.264962, -93.717340
  Warm Springs Falls #4:  36.265311, -93.717469
  Warm Springs Falls #5:  36.265742, -93.718491
  Warm Springs Falls #6:  36.267503, -93.721447

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  If you make the climb from the top of the falls to the bottom or vice versa, your dog will not likely be able to make that climb on their own.  If your dog can't be trusted to stay until you return, I would leave it at home.  

Hiking Statistics:  On this first hike today, I logged right at 3.0 miles on the GPS.  It is just 1.2 miles from where you park to Tea Kettle Falls.  My total track time on this hike was 2:52 (hh: mm), and 54 minutes of that was actually "time moving".  The minimum-to-maximum elevation change was only 146 feet, and I imagine most of that was simply climbing the bluff to get above the top of the waterfall.  This hike is mostly on the level, with some minimal ups and downs along the trail.  I would rate this an easy hike.  

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Madison WMA waypoints
  Tea Kettle and Reynolds Hollow GPS track
  Road track from Highway 23 to parking location #1
  Road track from parking location #1 to parking location #2
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Eagle's Nest Falls, Road 299 Falls, and Glory B Falls

Tea Kettle Falls (41 feet)

The Madison Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is a pretty cool area to explore, with a lot of waterfalls, caves, and creeks with crystal clear waters.  Among all the waterfalls in the area, Tea Kettle is perhaps the coolest.  For that matter, it may be the coolest in the state of Arkansas, and that's saying a lot.  Over the millennia, the creek in this hollow eroded a hole down into the big bluff it spilled over.  At some point, a tiny fault or something let water flow sideways out to the face of the earth, and it eventually drilled a hole down and out the front of the bluff, somewhat like a tea kettle's spout, and thus the name.  The water goes down in the hole and squirts out the 'spout', flowing out onto the loose rock below with only the shallowest of pools.  When the stream really gets going, which is rare, the water flows over the top of the 'spout' as well, forming a unique double waterfall from the same point.  

The 'Spout' of Tea Kettle Falls

We had just had approximately four inches of rain at our house north of Dover, which was going to make for a lot of brownish water with all the runoff, so I thought I would let that clear up for a couple of days and head northwest, where they only got about an inch of rain the previous day and night.  Tea Kettle Falls is notorious for drying up quickly after a rain, so to catch it with good flow, you have to get out there right after a good rain.  The streams in this area seem to always have very clear, pure, water, even right after a good rain, which was another reason it was a good choice today.  Unfortunately, it is a drive of over two hours for me to just drive to the small community of Forum, near the Madison WMA, so I make very few trips up there.  Today, it seemed to be the right call and I headed that way.  Boomer (our German Shepherd) normally accompanies me when I'm hiking alone, but today I wanted to hit not only Tea Kettle and nearby Reynolds Hollow Falls, but also the other major waterfalls in the Madison WMA.  Since I would be driving about six hours today, I left Boomer at home with Bethany and took off solo.

Madison WMA sign when you turn onto Road 447-8

Getting there isn't too difficult, but it can be confusing.  You know how I usually say to just put the coordinates for the parking location in your navigation unit or phone, and let that do the work for you?  Well, maybe not this time.  Your navigation unit will probably not know this road is even a road.  So this time, I added the coordinates for where you turn off of Highway 23 in the list of GPS coordinates above.  Go there.  From where Highway 23 makes a sharp turn in Forum, Arkansas (also where CR-8840 intersects Highway 23), go 6.5 miles north on Highway 23 and turn left at this point.  This is road 447-8 (aka WMA-8), and there is a large Madison WMA sign that has just about every piece of information you can think of except for the road number.  Go 1.4 miles down road 447-8 and park at the clearing on the right.  There will be a sign on a tree that says no vehicles past this point.  This is parking location #1, the one I used today.  If you crossed Warm Springs Creek, you went too far.

Parking Location #1
Between Road 447-8 and Warm Springs Creek

You can also go further on this road an additional 1.5 miles to parking location#2.  Along the way you first cross over Warm Springs Creek, then when it runs into CR-410, bear right to get on CR-410.  After that, there is a WMA road on the right at 1.5 miles from parking location #1.  Turn onto that and there will be a gate at the top of that road.  The gate is parking location #2.  If it is open, you can drive down an additional 1.4 miles and park.  This is parking location #3, and the top of Tea Kettle Falls is just a few yards down the slope on the right.  If the gate at parking location #2 is closed, you can park there and hike down to the top of Tea Kettle Falls, but I see no point in that.  The WMA road down to parking location #3 is actually not too bad, but you should have a 4WD to attempt it.  It is easy hiking, but so is the trail from parking location #1, and it goes along Warm Springs Creek and is a slightly shorter hike.  Parking location #2 is about 400 feet higher than Tea Kettle, so you'll have a little climb on the way back up to parking location #2 as well.  It is still easy hiking, as I mentioned.  

Parking Location #3
Looking down at top of Tea Kettle Falls

If you do go down the road from parking location #2, once you get to the top of Tea Kettle Falls you still have to climb down the bluff to the base and back up.  If you hike from parking location #1, you may decide that kind of climb just isn't for you.  For me, if I'm limited on time as I was today, driving right to parking location #3 might be best.  But otherwise, I prefer hiking along the creek so I can see the other scenery and visit Reynolds Hollow Falls on the way back as well.  I thought the gate would be open in winter, so I drove up thinking I might get lucky.  I did not get lucky - it was closed, so I drove back down to parking location #1.  I did include a map below of the road routes (in orange) to parking location #1 and parking location #2, and I'll include those track files in links at the top of this post.

Warm Springs Creek
Always Crystal Clear

Back to where I parked today, at parking location #1 in the clearing on the south side of Warm Springs Creek, I started hiking downstream.  at the end of the clearing, you'll find an old road that you can hike down within sight of Warm Springs Creek.  It quickly becomes just a trail, but it gets enough foot and horse traffic to be a pretty good one.  At one point, the trail narrows considerably as it hugs a rock bluff on the right.  Just after this, a steel cable has been stretched across the trail and anchored into trees on each side.  I don't know why.  The only thing I can think of is maybe the WMA management is trying to prevent horses from using the trail at that point, where it hugs the rock bluff.  I saw signs elsewhere in this valley where horses had been, so I know they still frequent the trail.  On the way downstream along the creek, the trail gradually rises above creek level to the short bench just above the creek.   As it crosses small drainages, there are a number of small waterfalls as their streams flow over the edge of the bluff.  You'll cross one larger creek a little over the halfway point.  This is just downstream of Reynolds Hollow Falls.  

Inside-Out View of Tea Kettle Falls

I continued on down the trail, and at about the one-mile point from the parking area, dropped down toward the creek.  There is a small waterfall, Falls #3, where a side drainage pours over the creekside bluff, and another, Falls #4, just downstream on that drainage.   Falls #4 only has an initial drop of fewer than three feet but goes into a cascade that stretches out for about 50 feet downstream.  This is as good a place as any to head over to Warm Springs Creek and find a place to cross.  The bluff that Tea Kettle Falls flows over wraps around the mouth of Tea Kettle Hollow such that Warm Springs Creek flows right up next to it on the left bank.  That's why you can't just follow the creek between Reynolds Hollow and Tea Kettle Hollow.  I looked for and found some downed trees that I was able to cat-walk across and keep mostly dry.  I didn't get any water inside my boots, which is the important thing.  Once you cross over into the mouth of that hollow, Tea Kettle Falls is only a hundred yards or so upstream.  If it is flowing well, you should have been able to hear it by this time.

Tea Kettle Falls

As I described earlier, Tea Kettle Falls not only has a unique geometry, it is in a beautiful setting.  The grotto has high bluffs all around, pierced only by that jet of water coming out of the side of the bluff and forming the waterfall.  The area the waterfall falls in is all covered by that same small rock aggregate that I think is limestone.  In my part of the Ozarks, a waterfall like that would have created a good sized pool below it.  Here, it barely makes a dent in the rock floor of the grotto, and the water flows off just as clear as can be.  There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was very bright, so I knew the waterfall photos would not be as good as they would otherwise.  I didn't really care.  It is just such an awesome sight, I just wanted to pause and savor the scenery around me.  

View from the top of Tea Kettle Falls

I climbed to the top and did the best I could to snap a few photos there also, but my irrational fear of heights and the wet slippery rock up there kept me from fully enjoying that.  Check that; I think my fear of heights is completely rational.  Going from the top to the bottom of Tea Kettle Falls is not that difficult, it's just not something people like me like to do.  Off to the left of the waterfall, there is a bear crack where a big chunk of the bluff has broken away.  Around on the left side of that, you can climb up on rocks and make your way up to the top.  If there is a better, safer, way for us acrophobics, please let me know.  After enjoying the view from up there, I climbed back down and headed back.  I found my fallen tree (nature's bridge) and crossed over Warm Springs Creek. On the other side of the creekside bluff upstream I found another good place to cross back over to the north side of the creek.  

Reynolds Hollow Falls

There is also a volunteer trail on the north side of the creek, and there is enough traffic on it to keep it plainly visible.  Even if you are bushwhacking, there just isn't much undergrowth this time of year.   About halfway between Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls, you cross a small creek with a nice cascade on it, Falls #5.  If you look upstream, it appears as if the creek just appears at the base of a small bluff.  In fact, it does just that.  There is a spring coming out the bottom of the rock face there that the water gushes out of.  At least, today it was gushing.  Continuing on around and going up into Reynolds Hollow, I arrived at Reynolds Hollow Falls in no time.  It isn't a huge waterfall, but it's a beautiful one, and generally has about the same flow as Tea Kettle Falls, so if one is worth seeing, they both will be.  

This bluff is why you don't cross the creek
until you get to Tea Kettle Hollow

From Reynolds Hollow, I crossed back over Warm Springs Creek again.  The trail along the south side is fairly close to the creek, so it doesn't take much bushwhacking to make your way back up to it.  I made my way back along the trail to where I had parked the FJ Cruiser.  I had been a little too late starting out, having breakfast with my wife Bethany before starting my drive up.  I didn't get started hiking until 11:00am and it was almost 2:00pm but the time I got back to the FJ.  I still wanted to see the three waterfalls I call the "trifecta of drive-by waterfalls" in the Madison WMA, so I quickly loaded up and headed on down to the south section of the WMA.  This hike is fairly easy hiking, with a few ups and downs, but nothing all that strenuous.  I hiked three miles in total, but a lot of that was just me getting distracted and exploring new things.  It is only 2.4 miles round trip if you just go to Tea Kettle Falls and back.  I would rate this one an easy hike, and I would recommend it for everyone.

Red - GPS track for Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls
Orange - Road 447-8

Red - GPS track for Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls
Orange - Road 447-8 track from Highway 23